training might have a favorable effect on burnout among Japanese hospital nurses. (J Occup Health 2003; 45: 185-190)

The Development of a Questionnaire to Assess the Attitude of Active Listening: Norio MISHIMA, et al. Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences-Interpersonal relationships are widely recognized as a major source of job stress, and a mental health training program that incorporates active listening (AL) has attracted much attention in Japan. However, few methods are available to assess the attitude of AL easily. To develop a new questionnaire that can measure workers' person centered attitude (PCA), which is closely related to AL, we formulated a scale of 47 items that describe basic elements of the PCA and AL. This preliminary scale was administered to 536 workers (426 male and 95 female) at two manufacturing companies. Responses to the scale items were subjected to a principal factor analysis followed by a varimax rotation. A scree test suggested three meaningful factors, whose cumulative contribution was 81.2%. These factors were subsequently labeled as "Listening Attitude", "Listening Skill", and "Conversation Opportunity". Both Cronbach's alphas and test-retest reliabilities indicated that all three factors were highly reliable. To examine the validity of the scale, factor scores of lay persons (middle-aged workers) were compared with those of 39 clinical therapists who specialize in psychosomatic medicine. Scores for all three factors were significantly higher for the therapists than for the lay persons. Of the three factors derived from the preliminary scale, the first and second showed remarkable differences between the groups and were retained for their usefulness for evaluating AL. The new scale, the Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS), is expected to be a useful instrument for various mental health programs to assess the PCA. (J Occup Health 2000; 42: 111-118)

No abstract

Occupational and Environmental Health-The present study was conducted to clarify the direct effects of active listening (AL) training given to middle managers in a local government. Altogether, 345 middle managers participated in 13 AL training sessions over two years. We developed the Inventive Experiential Learning (IEL) method, and used it as the central training method in this study. To investigate how well the participants learned AL, we asked the middle managers to answer a shorter version of the Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS) consisting of two subscales-i.e. "Listening Attitude" and "Listening Skill"-before training, one month after and three months after training. Altogether, 284 middle managers answered the questionnaire three times. The scores of each subscale were analyzed by repeated measurement analysis of variance. The participants were divided into three groups using the percentile values of the original sample of ALAS, i.e. low-score group (-24%), medium-score group (25-75%) and high-score group (76%-), and the proportionate changes were examined. The results showed both the "Listening Attitude" and "Listening Skill" subscales increased significantly after training. Analysis of the percentiles showed that the proportion of the low-score group decreased and that of the high-score group increased in both subscales, from one to three months after training. These changes are considered to indicate that the participants have learned AL although they attended AL training for only one day.

A Research in the Effects of Active Listening on Corporate Mental Health Training: Shinya Kubota, et al. Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health—The effects of mental health training for corporate administrators, using Active Listening (Experiential Listening) as a major method was investigated. Sixty subjects took part in the mental health training program which consisted of 2 two‐day workshops (a total of 30 hr). The workshop program consisted of a lecture on stress, techniques of relaxation, the practice of Active Listening, and sharing of personal communication experiences in the workplace. Questionnaires which measured the Type A behavior pattern and the effects of Active Listening were collected in the first and last training sessions. The results showed significant differences in the degree of listening in the workplace in six of 27 items in the listening questionnaire and significant differences in three of seven items in the Type A questionnaire. Active Listening training seems to promote the attitudes of “listening genuinely” or “listening seriously” to workers. The practice of better listening may decrease the characteristics of the Type A behavior pattern such as “being busy” or “making others busy.” The mental health method focusing on Active Listening is discussed as a useful training technique for corporate mental health.